Thursday, March 28, 2024

October 2020 brings two full moons, including rare Blue Moon on Halloween

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The first and last days of October will be graced with vibrant night skies to illuminate all things spooky this Halloween season.

This year, stargazers can catch a full Harvest Moon on October 1 and the full Hunter’s Moon on October 31, Halloween night.

On the west coast, the Harvest moon rises tonight at around 7:18 p.m., according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. The Hunter’s moon is expected to grace Halloween night even earlier, at around 6:19 p.m.

Tonight’s Harvest moon likely gets its name from northern-hemisphere farmers who used the extra light to harvest more crops.

Meanwhile the Hunter’s moon is named so because it rises in the month of October, when hunters gathered up and preserved their game for the coming winter months.

It also has several different names in North American Indigenous cultures, including Kindly moon, Travel moon, and Blood moon.

When two full moons rise in a single calendar month, the second one is called a ‘Blue Moon’—a rare phenomenon on its own, but even more special for it to fall on Halloween night.

According to the Almanac, a full moon occurring on Halloween only happens every 18 to 19 years.

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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